Municipal politics (2006 – 2014)

Vaughan ran in Trinity—Spadina - Ward 20 in the 2006 municipal election. The seat had been vacated by Olivia Chow who left the city for federal politics. He won the seat defeating Helen Kennedy, Chow's executive assistant, by 2,300 votes.

After the 2010 mayoral election, Vaughan was an outspoken critic of then-Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

As a member of City Council Vaughan sat on the Toronto Police Services Board,^[6] the Planning and Growth Management Committee, the Toronto Arts Council, Artscape Board, the Board of Trustees for the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Harbourfront Centre Board. Additionally he sat on the city's Heritage Board, and the city's Preservation Board.

Federal politics (2014 – 2021)

In 2014, he ran as the Liberal candidate in a federal by-election to succeed New Democratic Party MP Olivia Chow, who had resigned to run for Mayor of Toronto. At the time. the Liberals had their fewest MPs in history.^[7][8] Vaughan resigned his city council seat on May 13, 2014, several days after the Trinity—Spadina by-election was called.^[9][10] He defeated NDP candidate Joe Cressy by 6,745 votes, a nearly 2-to-1 margin.^[11]

Vaughan was quickly promoted to the Liberal front bench as critic for urban affairs and housing.^[12]

In the October 2015 federal election, Vaughan ran in Spadina—Fort York, essentially the southern portion of his old riding. His main opponent was Chow, the person who he had replaced twice, first on Toronto City Council and then later as MP. Once the election was called, Vaughan initially trailed Chow in public opinion polls. However, on election day, in part due to a massive surge of Liberal support in Toronto, he defeated Chow convincingly, taking 54.5% of the vote to Chow's 27.4%.^[13][14]

On December 2, 2015, he was appointed the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister for intergovernmental affairs.^[15]

In August, 2021, Vaughan announced he would not be seeking re-election in the 2021 Canadian federal election.^[16] He was succeeded by Kevin Vuong, who was nominated as a Liberal, but saw party support for him dropped after the revelation of sexual assault charges against him in 2019.

Federal elections

More information Party, Candidate ...

v t e 2015 Canadian federal election: Spadina—Fort York
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Adam Vaughan	30,141	54.66	30.27	–
	New Democratic	Olivia Chow	15,047	27.28	22.36	–
	Conservative	Sabrina Zuniga	8,673	15.73	5.13	–
	Green	Sharon Danley	1,137	2.06	2.11	–
	PACT	Michael Nicula	91	0.17	–	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Nick Lin	59	0.11	–	–
Total valid votes/expense limit			55,148	100.0		$205,892.35
Total rejected ballots			268	0.48	–
Turnout			55,416	73.93	–
Eligible voters			74,958
Source: Elections Canada[19][20]

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Municipal elections